A Word & Its Meaning – Put it Together with a Picture

In kindergarten, my daughter refused to read words in isolation. So I started drawing pictures around the words to give them context.

Upon looking for flashcards with pictures, teachers told me about the Bob Books. They are the only kind of reading system that incorporates words with pictures. Cheaper yet, we turned to the Dick and Jane books. These books have the sight words and pictures with enough repetition to learn the words.

How can we make learning sight words fun and effective?

Make your own pictures that go with word meanings.

In fact, have your child dream up pictures that go with word meanings – preferably with a friend! Use a white board as this takes a lot of erasing.

This is an effective learning strategy for primary, intermediate, and ESL students to connect the meanings and spellings of words.

 At the bottom of this entry is a page from Purple Cows & Potato Chips (1995) which gives more examples of how words can be turned into pictures.

Spelling Strategies

Good News! There are things you can do to help your students learn spelling words!


Strategy 1: Cover, Copy, Compare

This strategy is a good way for students to work by themselves on their words. They cover the word they want to spell, write it, and then compare it to the original.

Small white boards and markers are good for this, because students usually enjoy white-boards more than pens and paper. In fact, you could save the white board just for this purpose to keep it special.

Also there are many sites online that will make worksheets of your list of words.

Click here for more directions.